School of Environmental Sciences Sustainability

Over the weekend 23^rd/24^th October, you can help the School of Environmental Sciences in its mission to lead the rest of the University in sustainability standards by taking part in The Big Turn Off. The SoES sustainability advocates are planning to measure electricity consumption over that weekend to establish a baseline for essential consumption within each SoES building. This will allow us to set realistic targets for energy reduction in the future and provide evidence for potential funding to further improve sustainability. Please be extra vigilant in turning off all lights, computers, monitors and other lab and office equipment, but in addition please liaise with co-workers to determine which communal items can be switched off. You can help maximise the efficiency of this venture by encouraging as many people to take part as possible and coordinating efforts across corridors and labs. See the guidelines at the end of this email for further information.

 We hope you will support this initiative and the SoES’ aim to lead by example on sustainability issues. For further information on the group and sustainability within the school please visit http://pcwww.liv.ac.uk/earth/sust/index.htm

Guidelines:

·         Turn off as many appliances at the plug socket as possible, this ensures they are taking no power.

·         Talk to the rest of your team about communal items, do they need to be left on? Are they left on simply because nobody “owns” them?

·         If you are working over the weekend, please keep your energy consumption to a minimum and ensure lights and equipment are turned off after use. If you have energy intensive work to do, please keep a brief log of activities with times and email this to your sustainability advocate.

·         If you are aware of any energy wastage which is currently occurring, please contact your sustainability advocate who will help to resolve or reduce this (diplomatically) if possible.

 Lab:

·         Check that any appliances which do not require continuous power are switched off at the switch or plug socket (not on standby).

·         Check with technical staff whether equipment that is normally left on permanently can be switched off over this (and perhaps all) weekends.

·         Turn off fume cupboards

·         Turn off furnaces (unless in use, in which case report this to your sustainability advocate)

·         Turn off all lights

Computer:         

·         Shut down CPU (not sleep, standby or hibernate)

·         Turn off monitor(s), speakers, printers, scanners and all other peripherals at the plug or power button, do not leave on standby (often indicated by red/orange light).

·         Install the PowerMan or PowerDown energy saving software. See http://www.liv.ac.uk/csd/greenit/index.htm for further details.

 Lights

·         Please turn off all lights when you leave your office or lab, not forgetting lights in the stairs, corridors and toilets.

·         If you are not sure whether anyone is still there, shout a warning, and then turn the lights off.

·         If you are in the lab or office and someone turns off all the lights – please be understanding!  Then turn the lights off again when you leave.

Heating

·         Please turn off any manually controlled heating – it’s only for one weekend!